Burden of Desire

Julie Rekai Rickerd is a Toronto broadcaster and public relations
consultant.

Canadian-born Robert MacNeil, co-anchor of PBS’s widely acclaimed
“MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” and author of five nonfiction works, has
written a superb first novel.

Set amid the tragic explosion in Halifax harbor in December 1917, this
novel skilfully follows the often catastrophic consequences of this
horrific event.

MacNeil’s protagonists include a young, ambitious, and handsome
Anglican minister; his friend from childhood, a psychologist at the
university; and a beautiful war bride from Montreal, now settled in
upper-class Halifax awaiting her husband’s return. All three are
passionate, romantic, and troubled. Through them and their intertwined
relationships MacNeil deftly addresses larger issues: the futility and
human waste of war; the existence of God; the validity of fate; Freudian
concepts of psychoanalysis; and the stratification of society. These
subtly presented themes never interfere with the novel’s dramatic,
fast-paced narrative.

The author’s elegant use of language and keen sense of observation
and detail enrich the text. He creates the perfect combination of
dramatic and descriptive tensions to propel his tale, one filled with
heavy human losses but also with many spiritual and intellectual gains.
Is the loss of a young, healthy life worth a Victoria Cross? If there is
a God at all, is He responsible for such ungodly chaos and suffering?
What defines the difference between a hero and a coward? Are the desires
of the mind less dangerous than those of the flesh? These are among the
many questions posed, debated, and often left unresolved.

Burden of Desire elicits the most complimentary request one can make of
a first-time novelist—that MacNeil write, as quickly as time allows, a
second novel that is equally captivating and enthralling.